Toreros allow another halftime lead to slip away

For the second consecutive game, USD’s basketball team led by one at halftime only to see the game slip away in the second half. This time, Loyola Marymount defeated the Toreros 67-58 in Saturday’s West Coast Conference contest at Gersten Pavilion to leave San Diego winless in the conference-opening road trip despite a season-high 24 points from junior guard Darian Norris.

“We were in the exact same point where we were two nights ago,” said Toreros coach Bill Grier, whose team lost at Pepperdine on Thursday. “We had a stretch where we just weren’t executing and making poor shot selection. And we weren’t rebounding, so we were giving their offense second chances when they missed.”

San Diego outrebounded LMU by three in the first half, but the Lions (8-8, 1-1), led by 12 rebounds from Vernon Teel, finished the game with 10 more than the Toreros (3-13, 0-2).

Teel also led the Lions with 16 points.

San Diego led 29-28 at halftime thanks to a surge by Norris, who led all first-half scorers with 14 points despite not scoring his first points until nearly 10 minutes into the game. His three-point play with 35.9 seconds left in the half provided a lead that was preserved when LMU missed multiple attempts in the closing seconds.

Chris Manresa (five points) and Chris Gabriel (four points) were the only other Toreros with multiple scores in the first half.

San Diego shot 36.4 percent from the field in the first half, but never trailed by more than four in the half. The shooting percentage dropped to 32 percent in the second half for 34.5 percent (20-of-58) overall.

“We were fine through the first 24 minutes,” Grier said. “But then we just weren’t making our shots or rebounding. It’s hard to beat anybody when you’re shooting 34 percent from the field. ...

“We controlled the first half, but we’ve got to get to the point where we get through that last 16 minutes OK. We’ve had some struggles there.”

LMU opened its first double-figure lead on back-to-back three-pointers by Anthony Ireland that put the Lions up 57-47 with 5:39 remaining.

Norris, who entered the game averaging a team-high 10.5 points per game, had put the Toreros up 32-30 a little more than two minutes into the half, but he was held scoreless for the next 14 minutes, by which point the Lions’ lead had grown to 12.